The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-02-26
truer meaning was revealed unto him. So

truer meaning was revealed unto him. Sc
always,
"GoD is his own interpreter,
And He will make it plain"
Con had indeed required the sacrifice of his
heart and the remuneration of all its dearest
treasures, in behalf of the true faith and wor-
ship; but Abraham had erred in the manner
of the offering. GoD had not commanded
the death of the child. ram was providen-
TALLY provided, and was offered in worship as
the symbol of the true sacrifice. AS me-
mortal of the event the place was called Je-
hovah- jirah, meaning JEHOVAH will pro-
vide," or, as we might say, Providence. The
event itself was the occasion of a proverb in
Israel, "On the mountain where JEHOVAH
appears" or, SIN the mount of the LORD it
shall be provided" "Man's extremity is
COPS opportunity, I'VE are accustomed to say.
The story is doubtless preserved as a strik-
ing evidence of Abraham's faith in COP and
obedience to His word, and, it may be, to
explain the origin of bloody sacrifice and
burnt offerings in the ceremonies of worship
among the Israelites, and also as an evidence
of the Divine disapproval of human sacrifice.
The writer, who wrote long after the event
occurred, says in accordance with the He
brew thought concerning Divine providence,
"that GoD did prove Abraham" and as the
result Of the test of his faith and fidelity,
found that he did truly "fear Him." and that
he had not indeed s'witbheld his only son
from Him.
What occurred, as we would say, through
GoD's providence, they 1.-THE Hebrewsl attrib-
uted directly to COP Himself. Second causes
accounting for all events, to the First Cause
The ancient Hebrew saw GoD in every
thing, whether the movements of the Spheres
or those of the human mind. That
Abraham thoroughly believed that COP spoke
to him is evident from the Lesson, and from
the emblematic use made of it in after times.
We may, without excluding the Divine voice,
reverently refer the impulse to his reveries
concerning his duty, the doctrine of sacrifice
with which he was familiar, and even his con-
scientiousness. He rejected the first
impulse, though he at the beginning followed
it. He ''spared" his son, in obedience to an
undoubted voice from Heaven. We are not
to assume that Abraham was a well-devel-
oped Christian. He had not the light, theo-
logical, philosophical, or moral, which has
been vouchsafed to later ages. He was a
babe in religious things; listening for the
acting faithfully according to his light. It is
bis faithfulness, his rigid conscientiousness,
which makes him the 'father of the faith
full. "-Rer. G.. L. Demarest, D. D., S. s.
Helper, September, 1880.
The whole difficulty has CROPPED around the
question, "How could Cop command such o.
hing?" But that is not the question. The
question, viewing it naturally, is, simply
"How could Abraham fancy that COP COM
manded it?' Then all becomes plain enough
i &C
You have to remember that all around Abra-
ham were people who believed in human
sacrifices, practiced them, and who offeEed
their very children to Moloch Or to Baal.
The thought of human sacrifice was in the
ueTy air of the ancient world-a dreadful
and yet not unintelligible perversion of the
craving to offer the very best to Cop. See?
Can you not imagine Abraham-the old man
now, who had left his fathers land-a wan
derer-and who had been so wonderfully
prospered-and now rejoicing in this crown
ing blessing of son.-can't you imigine
him in his very gratitude crying out some
thing like that word, "Whdt shall render
unto the LORD for all his benefits toiUord
me?" Wouldn't the answer of his heart be
likely to be, LORD, there is nothing OF all
that | have that / would not give Thee?"
Why, if such thoughts did arise, it seems to
me that it would be SO easy to feel the ques
ton pressing right on their heels, Could
you give anything? Could you gice up your
SOM" You know such question dwells in
the mind, when once it has got in it at ALL
can understand its haunting him until at
last it seemed to urge him, TO command him
stake no,o thy son, thu orly son whom thou
lowest" Why, it is one of the most pathetic
pictures in all ancient life, this old man who
bad all his life trusted these inner voices as
the very words of his GoD, believing that this
must be so, too: and taking his son, dearer
than his own life; and his not being able to
tell him, and when the lad asked where was
the lamb for the sacrifice, only answering,
1.-THE LORD l0iU PROVIDE" And then, just as,
after lengthening his journey out three days,
he has at length felt that it had to be, and
buided his altar for it, 10! in the thicket near
is a ram caught By its horns; and his own
words, "the LORD will provide" came back |
upon him with new meaning; and then with |
a sudden burst of overmastering clearness, |
the deepest feeling i'll him would cry out
Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do
him any hdYnlV and he would feel that this |
was the very final word of the LORD, and the
other only a temptation.
There is nothing repulsive in that-nothing
even unnatural. Yet have done no violence
to the narrative-I have only translated back
tbs supposition of an outward unmistakable
command into that everlasting reality of the
inaUard leading which may DO mistaken,
sometimes is mistaken, even by those who
have most learned to listen to it and trust it.
Nay, the story is not only natural, it seems
as if it had a real place in such breaking
away as Abraham's from the idol worship
round him. In leaving his fathers land, he
had finally left behind him Poiytheisn,. In
this last crisis over the promptings to offer
his son, he finally left behind the old
worlds idea of Human Sacrifice. He l0as
still, it may be, far enough from Religion as
lCe hold it, but he was on the aUay. on the way
to CHRIsT's worship of the Heavenly Father,
and to CHRIsT's Interpretation of the noble
word, 81 will have mercy and not sacrifice!''-
Req. Brooke HEREFORD. Normal Glass Lecture,
Studies in the Old Testament Stories"